What is a Fairy Ring 🍄

2024-08-07

Historically, there are actually two different things that are called “fairy rings.”

The first I believe is exclusive to Ireland, and is now more commonly called a “fairy fort.” These forts are an elevated ring-shaped mound that is quite large. Some say that humans built a structure originally, then when the humans left, the fairies took it over. Other stories have a more traditional story, which I will talk about in a moment.

^{Credit Link}

You can walk around the large rings yourself, but stepping into the center or causing it disrespect it not a good idea. I once talked to an Irish man while I was at a fairy fort in Ireland. He was still superstitious in the old ways, and said he once saw a tourist urinate into a fairy fort, and did not make it very far before breaking his leg.

The second type of fairy ring is the kind most people today are familiar with; it is a mysteriously perfect circle made of moss, or grass, or mushrooms, or some sort of other living growth.

The trooping fairies can be large or small, friendly or sinister. ‘They tend to wear green jackets, while the solitary fairies wear red jackets. They can range from the heroic fairies to the dangerous and malevolent SLUAGH or those diminutive fairies who include the tiny nature fairies that make the fairy rings with their DANCING and speed the growth of flowers.

A Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katharine Briggs (1976)

Both these types of fairy rings are often said to be caused by fairies dancing in a circle, or sometimes by fairies riding horses in a circle.

^{“A fairy ring of an unidentified mushroom”}

Stepping into a ring or causing it destruction could lead to several different things: including being transported to the otherworld, being cursed, being forced to dance, and more.

If you were trapped, dancing there, you would need a rescuer to help pull you out, or touch you with iron or rowan.

‘I remember how an old woman pulled me out of a fairy ring to save me from being taken.’

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz (1911)

“^{Plucked from the Fairy Circle”. A man saves his friend from the grip of a fairy ring.(1880)}

So, to sum it up, a fairy ring could be a place of play where a magic mark is left from fairies the night before, or perhaps it is their portal to the Otherworld. No matter the answer, disrespecting one of these places is said to bring bad things your way, even if not immediately.

He wha tills the fairies’ green

Nae luck again shall hae :

And he wha spills the fairies’ ring

Betide him want and wae.

For weirdless days and weary nights

Are his till his deein’ day.

But he wha gaes by the fairy ring,

Nae dule nor pine shall see,

And he wha cleans the fairy ring

An easy death shall dee.

A Scottish Rhyme